Chron Gen

  • Chron Gen
  • Puppets of War EP7 (UK Gargoyle) 1981  (UK Fresh) 1981 
  • Chronic Generation (UK Secret) 1982 
  • Nowhere to Run EP (UK Picasso) 1984 
  • Live at the Old Waldorf - San Francisco (UK Hard Court / Picasso) 1985 
  • This Is the Age (UK Westworld Recordings) 2016 

This quartet from Hertfordshire, formed in the class of ’77, produced top-notch British punk-core, rippling with strength and clarity. But it took them a long while to get an album out.

Played at reasonable speed with a generally high level of comprehensibility, Chronic Generation (originally distributed with a live maxi-single) offers songs about the usual subjects (drugs, rock’n’roll, kids, fighting) that take a mature stance against mindless violence and substance abuse. Perhaps a little tame for true thrash aficionados, Chron Gen showed much greater potential for growth than a lot of their punk contemporaries.

The band only made one proper album at the time, but reformed a bunch of times and, with a couple of original members still on hand, released a second one in 2016.

[Ira Robbins]